Bulgaria and Germany crossed swords on Wednesday evening playing their matchup no. 134 in history, with Germany – including the results claimed by the former German Democratic Republic – boasting a record of 81 wins and 52 losses. However, Bulgaria were the favourites going into this match, especially after they delivered a series of startling performances in Pool C where they finished as runners-up after they were close to upsetting reigning European champions Russia.
Bulgaria set the pace of the match in a one-sided opening set, where Elitsa Vasileva and her colleagues smashed the opponent to rally to a compelling 25-14 win.
The course of the game, however, changed in the second set where the young German side coached by Felix Koslowski put up a fight and dictated the tempo almost from start to end. Bulgaria made some changes to their initial starting six, with veteran Eva Yaneva taking to the court as well, and despite a late surge, the ‘Lionesses’ could not prevent their opponent from levelling the match (25-20).
The third set was pretty much a close fight at the beginning, before Bulgaria romped to a 15-9 lead as they stepped up the quality and intensity of their efforts. Despite Germany’s attempt at a comeback, Bulgaria could hold on to their lead and team captain Elitsa Vasileva eventually doubled their lead in the match with an ace (25-16).
Playing under the eyes of their Ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan, Germany showed much determination and focus as they fought back from an early 5-8 deficit in the fourth set to lead the way at the second technical time-out (16-12). At this stage, Bulgaria coach Ivan Dimitrov decided to replace starting setter Lora Kitipova with Diana Nenova – and this move produced some effect, but not enough to avoid the prospects of a tiebreaker.
Germany stormed to an 8-5 lead at the side switch in the all-deciding set – with their block causing some damage and their spikers regularly finding a way through the Bulgarian defence. The ‘Lionesses’ clawed back from 9-12 to 11-12, but after that Germany delivered a series of three straight points to finish it all off at 15-12 with their second best scorer Jennifer Geerties – thus securing their right for a second matchup with hosts Azerbaijan in the tournament.
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